Some day every spring there is a knock on Tom Izzo‘s office door in East Lansing. In comes the youngest of his assistant coaches, Dane Fife, a man he holds in high regards ever since he recruited the once blue chip prospect out of Clarkston, Michigan, in the late nineties. Izzo probably can‘t help himself but smile at the sight of Fife because he knows that year after year the two are having the same conversation. It is a brief yet important conversation that usually starts with a question from Fife. A rhetorical one that is.
“I always ask him in the spring if he still sees value in what I bring to this team,” Fife smiles.